Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is demanding the Biden administration reverse its decision to revoke emergency use authorization for Regeneron and Eli Lilly monoclonal antibody treatments.
The governor said in a statement Tuesday that the “abrupt and unilateral action” taken Monday night will “prevent access to lifesaving treatments for Floridians and Americans.”
DeSantis charged that the Biden administration has not provided “a shred of clinical data to support this action,” forcing “trained medical professionals to choose between treating their patients or breaking the law.”
“This indefensible edict takes treatment out of the hands of medical professionals and will cost some Americans their lives,” he said. “There are real-world implications to Biden’s medical authoritarianism – Americans’ access to treatments is now subject to the whims of a failing president.”
The FDA argued “data show these treatments are highly unlikely to be active against the omicron variant,” which the CDC believes accounts for about 99% of current COVID cases. The move was meant to prevent side effects from treatments the FDA believes will not work.
“In the future, if patients in certain geographic regions are likely to be infected or exposed to a variant that is susceptible to these treatments, then use of these treatments may be authorized in these regions,” the FDA said.
An HHS spokesman reacted to the claims by DeSantis, charging the governor is “more interested in promoting medicines that don’t work than urging people to take vaccines that do,” FoxNews.com reported.
DeSantis press secretary Christina Pushaw fired back, contending HHS was mischaracterizing the matter.
“Why doesn’t the HHS spokesperson understand that the majority of patients seeking monoclonal antibody treatment, like the majority of Floridians, ARE vaccinated?” she tweeted.
At the White House on Tuesday, press secretary Jen Psaki was asked to react to DeSantis’ criticism.
“Let’s just take a step back here to realize how crazy this is,” she began.
Psaki listed the various treatments the federal government has provided to Florida and insisted the monoclonal antibodies don’t work against omicron, based on what “the scientists say.”
Florida officials are “still advocating for treatments that don’t work,” she declared.
Psaki said “pushes” have been made for ineffective treatments on social media and “unfortunately from the mouths of elected officials” for such things as “injecting disinfectant, promoting other pseudoscience, sowing doubt on the effectiveness of vaccines and boosters, and now promoting treatments that don’t work.”
“We know what works. Vaccines and boosters,” she said. “We have a range of doses, things that do work, and treatments, and we’re providing those to Florida.”
The problem is that even the CEO of Pfizer has confirmed that the vaccines are largely ineffective against omicron, confirming data from around the world.
See Psaki react to DeSantis:
REPORTER: “Florida continues to push for [monoclonal antibody] treatment … What’s your response to Gov. DeSantis?”
PSAKI: “Let’s just take a step back here just to realize how crazy this is … We know what works, vaccines and boosters.” pic.twitter.com/jABj7SBRUX
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) January 25, 2022
Matt Allen, founder and CEO of BeanInvest, reacted to the news on Twitter, saying he lives in Florida and was “sick with a bad fever from omicron.”
“I received the regeneron monoclonal anti-body treatment and I felt like a new person 4 hours later,” he said. “It’s only crazy to them because it works.”
At a news conference Tuesday, DeSantis said the federal government’s decision was not based on any clinical data but on a single, non-peer-reviewed observational paper that was done by a consultant for a rival company to Regeneron and Eli Lilly.
He said Floridians have been using the treatment with good results.
“It’s not 100%. We understand that,” DeSantis said. “But you also don’t even know when someone goes in whether it’s omicron or the delta. Yes, mostly in Florida it’s going to be the omicron, at this point. But it’s really a reckless decision to be able to take this option away from patients when we’ve had the sites set up.”
The governor argued that even if it’s half as effective or 25% as effective, it’s better than nothing. And in the last month, amid the omicron wave, “we’ve had people who have had their symptoms resolved after doing it.”
The governor’s office said that as a result of the decision Monday night, more than 2,000 Floridians had their appointments to receive the treatment canceled on Tuesday alone.
See DeSantis’ remarks:
@GovRonDeSantis UNLOADS on Biden after he recklessly revokes Americans of lifesaving monoclonal antibodies with this 🔥🔥🔥 response:
Just Perfect. WATCH the whole thing. pic.twitter.com/0DHjXNEFJt
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) January 25, 2022
‘Nothing but put individuals at risk’
In September, DeSantis charged the Biden administration was withholding monoclonal antibody treatments from his state. He vowed to fight “come hell or high water” to get the treatments for Floridians.
On Tuesday, Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez said the CDC and FDA have been “consistently inconsistent throughout the entire pandemic” and “to restrict treatment does nothing but put individuals at risk.”
“In our field of medicine, when someone comes to you seeking a treatment that could save their life, it is essential to have treatment options to ensure health care providers can make the best decisions for their patients,” she said.
Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo said the federal government “has failed to adequately provide the United States with adequate outpatient treatment options for COVID-19.”
“Now, they are scrambling to cover up a failure to deliver on a promise to ‘shut down the virus,'” he said.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Last year, America’s doctors, nurses and paramedics were celebrated as frontline heroes battling a fearsome new pandemic. Today, under Joe Biden, tens of thousands of these same heroes are denounced as rebels, conspiracy theorists, extremists and potential terrorists. Along with massive numbers of police, firemen, Border Patrol agents, Navy SEALs, pilots, air-traffic controllers, and countless other truly essential Americans, they’re all considered so dangerous as to merit termination, their professional and personal lives turned upside down due to their decision not to be injected with the experimental COVID vaccines. Biden’s tyrannical mandate threatens to cripple American society – from law enforcement to airlines to commercial supply chains to hospitals. It’s already happening. But the good news is that huge numbers of “yesterday’s heroes” are now fighting back – bravely and boldly. The whole epic showdown is laid out as never before in the sensational October issue of WND’s monthly Whistleblower magazine, titled “THE GREAT AMERICAN REBELLION: ‘We will not comply!’ COVID-19 power grab ignites bold new era of national defiance.”
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